On Friday I was sitting in the office I share with about 30 other people, and one of my colleagues was meeting with a student, about 2 feet away from me. I stuck my fingers in my ears (ouch!) to concentrate on my reading, but some of their conference seeped through anyway.
It gives some indication of a different sort of problem with public education than test scores and social problems.
Colleague: (trying to develop some rapport) So why are you interested in this course or in geography?
Student: (flatly) I’m not interested in it.
C: Um, well ok, then, what made you decide to take it?
S: It’s required, I have to take it.
C: (trying a different angle) well, then, what expectations do you have for this course?
S: I don’t have any expectations. (Pause.) I don’t have any expectations for any courses other than in my major.
Turns out, on further questioning, she's in the program for middle school teachers and can't wait to finish "all this stupid coursework" and get to teaching. Geography is not job #1 for our public schools, so I sort of see why she is not able to see the relevance of it for her (very instrumentalized) program.
My question is, why do education programs attract the students LEAST interested in learning, if teaching learning is what they want to do for the rest of their lives? Lest you think this is an isolated example, let me give you some additional backup:
1) one of my friends commented that the worst students in his classes as an undergrad at a large state university were the education majors.
2) the infamous B found that the classmates least interested in learning for its own sake in his undergrad classes at a teaching college (!) were the ed majors.
3) In all my graduate English lit classes, the worst and most disengaged students were the teachers who were there simply to get another step closer to the piece of paper (masters) required by state law. It finally got so if I came the first day and saw a preponderance of them, I'd drop the class. It just wasn't worth having a class that got dragged down so from lack of interest.
The prevailing attitude is "why do I have to know [substitute intellectual content here] if I'm only gonna teach fourth grade?" Well, with that logic, we might as well have fifth graders teach fourth grade! They'd be fresh with the material, and we could probably get away with paying them minimum wage.
'Kay, 'nuff ranting. At least for now. Movies tonight - "Blue." :)
These are, unfortunately, the same types of students I get from my students. Some of the pre-[insert professional health program here] are the worst. "I hated Spanish in high school, and I just don't see a use in taking courses here."
"Why do I need to take a communication course?" "So I have to take 5 English courses?" (in reference to the Writing Requirement, which is First Year Composition + 4 Writing Intensive courses)
What's so funny about your colleagues particular conversation is that the majority of the courses in that student's major are courses like geography, literature, art, etc. That student won't even be able to teach one s/he's finished the bachelor's degree, because the University has an initial licensure/master's program that the students must be admitted to before they can become certified to teach in Minnesota....
Posted by: Danielle at November 15, 2004 08:02 AMMy theory is that some people come to college to be trained, and others come to learn. Those who come to be trained major in education and health programs and those who come to learn major in things like English and Geography, for example.
I say this from experience: I, too, have sat in too many classes with high school English teachers working on their master's degrees, and alas, now I am a doctoral student in none other than (that's right--you guessed it) education.
I came here to the education department because there's a program here (my specialization) called comparative and international development education, but I'll have to admit that I miss my liberal arts days. Even on this level, it's all about meeting requirements and getting through more than it is about learning. Fortunately for me, I have a good advisor who encourages my journey on the path toward knowledge, but that's not true for eveyone in my program. I just wish they knew what's going past them....
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